Season 16, Episode 15: Bad to the Bone

 

"Bad to the Bone"

Episode 15

Air Date: June 2nd, 2008

Sigh...here we have mediocrity at it's finest!!! It just bothers me they just waste a filler episode on Lily that goes absolutely nowhere and accomplishes NOTHING for the character that she doesn't learn or develop from.  The premise of the episode is basically Lily being too nice of a person or being "considerate enough" for everyone as Theo's insensitive jerks his way into saying. -_-  It's like when Madison trying to prove how not boring she was in "Rock Solid" but here, Lily isn't even that insulted by the guys making fun of her for being so "considerate".  She actually seems to carry it with pride and jokes back at them for making fun of them for it.  Soooooo there really wasn't a need for her to be put under a spell and to go bad for an episode.  I guess all I can say that came out good from this episode was seeing a post-revelation Fran interacting with the team.  I love how the writers underplayed the reveal and just have Fran joking around with them about their secret but being very secretive and supportive of them.  I also love how she stood up to Lily during her "bad phase" and inadvertently helped her bring herself back to normal.  Sure, it's done in a random, embarrassing cat fight but whatchu gonna do??? O_o Also, we see that Dai Shi's final attack on RJ has had some serious lastly effects on his chest as he keeps crying out in pain randomly; even going full on Hulk mode when his animal spirit seems to be leaking out of him....YIKES!!! O_o  Whatever it is, it leads to a surprising confrontation between Theo and Casey who run into a Wolf man who fights them and retreats after defeating them.  Then RJ returns to the Jungle Karma Pizza with his shirt all ripped and torn.....hmmmmmm....O_o

On the villain side of things, I'm am glad that we are seeing Dai Shi continue to want to gain more powerful as his last battle with Casey in his Master mode form prove even too strong for him.  Dai Shi, of course, berates Jellica and Carnisoar for failing him in his training; leading the two Overloads to just toss him around for insulting them.  But as the two leave Dai Shi's throne room, Carnisoar does agree they need something more powerful to destroy the rangers now as they decide to send Camille with the last bracelet/talon to resurrect Grizzaka from the cave of darkness....Oooooooo!!! Dai Shi doesn't like it since he doesn't trust Grizzaka, especially since he blamed Dai Shi for losing the Beast War thousands of years ago but the Overload over rule him.  As Camille arrives and seemingly awakens a pissed off Grizzaka, I love how the Overloads bring up Dai Shi being in the body of a human and how that maybe what is making him not as powerful.  Once again, the Dai Shi/Jarrod fusion is being hinted at being something more than we've seen so far but the writers aren't really laying it out for us. I just hope they do something more with it cause it is providing a lot of nuance and intrigue within the characters...besides him just randomly yelling at the top of his lungs at the ceiling. :P

In terms of the monster(s) of the week, Hamhock (Oyyyyyy!!! -_-) is a serviceable villain that gets destroyed so easily during the first half of the episode he's not even worth talking about.  All I know is I got tired of the pig puns....FAST!!! -_- Then there's Porcuponge (Why do I even bother when I know these monster puns last throughout this show!? o_o lol) which is the monster that poisons Lily with one of his spikes that turns her bad...which is never really explained.  Camille does mention that he has special abilities but why not use the whole turning rangers bad into a master plan instead of it turning Lily bad by accident??? O_o  Also, I don't understand why she apologized to Casey and Theo when they never say he really being bad so....huh??? I guess it was cool since the Jungle Master Megazord again, especially since it can combine with the Shark zord and Elephant zord to make new formations for the megazord.  But other than that, "Bad to the Bone" is mediocre to the core! Sorry Lil!!! :(

Final Morph: D+